Frequently Asked Questions
How would you pay for tourism if we don’t have the money for other services now?
It’s a great question and one I get often. We actually already do spend money on tourism, so I’m simply saying that we are not spending those fund in the most effective manner. There are funds in the county with the Transient Occupancy Tax that must be spent on tourism. As your grow tourism, those funds grow, so tourism feeds it’s own growth. Down the road we can look to interject more funding into tourism if the desire to grow quicker is there. We can also build in tax incentives now to attract more tourism promoting businesses in our tourism designated areas.
Tourism only helps small businesses, right?
This is completely false. Tourism, when done correctly with a strategic vision and cohesive partnership strategy becomes a full economic driver from small businesses through restaraunts, service based businesses, etc. The entire economic ecosystem can be sustained and grown through a mature tourism effort. Tourism increases businesses, jobs, wages for jobs, etc. A large scale example would be the state of Florida. Florida has no personal property tax. Why? Because they bring so much revenue from tourism that they don’t need to tax their residents to death. We would be on a much smaller scale but the process is the same.
I think tourism should be our primary economic driver but not our only one. We must also have a diversified economic development strategy to attract more light industrial and light manufacturing installations in the northern corridor. If we don’t diversify our economic strategy then we are asking for another one industry town like we had back in the Avtex days.
Why do you think we can rely on tourism alone?
Growing tourism does not mean lowering the quality of life of our residents, it’s actually the opposite. We see traffic in October because we don’t control tourism, it controls us. Successful small town tourism destinations put mandates on the quality of life for residents for every tourism initiative. These locations actually see an huge increase in civic pride of their areas because the quality of life actually goes up.
Why would we want more traffic and more tourists?
How would you go about increasing tourism and economic development?
Once elected I would actually begin building relationships with other board members, as well as county and town leaders and staff. I’d like to get as many paths laid out and already beginning prior to January if at all possible. Once in the position, I would inject myself into both of those worlds as soon as possible and work to put my expertise and knowledge into the process. I think we have a lot of low hanging fruit that can be accomplished rather quickly.
Yes, I have already looked at the training and I would work to have those classes taken and completed within the first 6 months if possible.
Would you take the training to be a certified Supervisor?
Absolutely not! I cannot stress that enough. I am my own person and I think I’ve made it very clear over the years that I have an opinion, it is my opinion and I’m not scared to say it. I am more than willing to work on common ground with people to make Warren County great, but nobody tells me what I think, how I should act and especially how I would vote. To suggest otherwise is complete fearmongering and 100% false. If someone suggests that, please ask for proof. They won’t have any.
Are you just a puppet for some larger faction?
Some people say you have fake social media accounts to say things you would not normally say, is this true?
The current account I have is new as of October of 2024, because my main account, of which I had for YEARS was hacked. I do not, have not and see no need to have bogus social media accounts. I don’t have time for that and it serves no purpose. I find my time is far better spent research and planning for ways to make our county better rather than playing silly social media games.
I heard you have spoken to Jameison before, is that true?
Yep, 100% true. I’ve also had private conversations with Cheryl Cullers, Hugh Henry, Tony Carter, Cam Williams and Timmy Brogan. I will be reaching out to Stanmeyer shortly to have a chat as well. I find it just plain smart to talk to the people that you may be working with prior to any of that happening to see if you can find common ground to make Warren County better. We’ve lost the art of conversation, of building bridges of finding common ground. Nothing beneficial for our community has ever happened without multiple people working together, and I don’t see that changing in the future. I seek that common ground from all parties, candidates and individuals.
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